Ethics essay and professional practice

Spoke to my tutor regarding my ethics essay and professional practice.

She told me that a photographer I e.mailed recently Craig Ames is coming to give the MA students a talk in early December.

http://www.craigames.com/photography/home.html/


She also kindly offered to look at any questions I might wish to ask Craig in advance.

Craig recently exhibited work at the ways of looking exhibition, the work had similarities to my work in that he visited sites of emotional importance to him and tried to make sense of what had happened there using photography.

I felt very inspired by his work and feel it will be very helpful indeed to communicate with him.

I feel like I am progressing in the right direction, lots of ideas in the pipeline. Just need to focus those ideas and follow through.

Fashion brief

I have been doing lots of research for the fashion brief I intend to carry out.

Fashion photography is not a particularly interesting subject area for me. I'm more interested in informal photography. But my tutor suggested trying to push yourself into a new area & in my opinion this is a good idea. I'll not get the chance again.

The research is going very well so far. I have managed to find 2 willing models, a stylist / make up artist and even props if I need them.

To help all 4 people (myself included) communicate with ease. I have created a private Facebook group. This has helped everyone feel more involved and has worked very well as an ideas platform. I feel the biggest advantage will be that everyone will feel as though they know each other a little bit before the photography has even started.

The other advantage is that everyone has put ideas forward. Most people in the group have suggested ideas, posted inspiring images, etc.

I have posted some of the images posted by the group below

Spotlight portraits

I Recently enjoyed shooting spotlight portraits of some new students at college.

Spotlight images are images used by the acting profession to help them select actors prior to casting. 

http://www.spotlight.com/

Before we shot the students we shot each other, we experimented in tungsten lighting, with a 50mm portrait lens as we liked the result that it produced.

I also looked at headshot websites like this one below : 

It's important to remember to alter the setting afterwards in camera raw. Otherwise the image will come out with a colour cast like the image below : 

Image before editing white balance in camera raw

The image below has had the tungsten colour cast altered, it makes a big difference. This casn be done in any image and is particularly helpful when working with street lighting at night.

Editing tungsten studio images in RAW

This is how the image should look after colour correction and editing to convert to black and white. By creating a simple, but interesting lighting set up there is depth in the image and the subjects persona is able to shine through.

I was pleased with the end result that was achieved. Hope the students are too. Here are a selection of the final images below :

Gallery visits

I visited Skipton yesterday and was lucky enough to find a little gallery of the beaten path of the main high street.

I had a chat with the owner, who seemed like a lovely lady and asked what kind of work sold well and what did not. I have looked at small galleries in the past with a view to producing work to sell, the difference being between now and then is that I now feel my work is as good and in some cases better than some of the work on display in some galleries.

In a way this is an important milestone as it indicates my own self confidence is growing as is my self belief. I am looking at work on display in galleries more and more and thinking I that could and more importantly should do that ! I am also considering how I would like to produce my work more now, what type of product do I want to produce / sell.

I think it's important for me to start considering how I want to start printing and displaying my work. In particular what type of work would I like to try and sell ? Hence the recent research.

I have attached a few pictures that I
took inside the gallery.

Ethics

I have started my research into the ethics essay, I am considering looking at the ethics of street photography, in particular in relation to my profession :

I have a working title which is  :  The ethics of street photography

I intend to question whether it is ethical to still take photographs on the streets and if not why not? 

It is my belief that it is; street photography has been around almost as long as cameras have been portable. People like Bresson started in the 30's and it has carried on ever since. But is it ethical today?

 

I found several good websites which look at street photography :

http://www.nickturpin.com/nt11/words/what-was-the-subject/

I also found an interview / documentary at this website called the in-sight documentary :

http://www.nickturpin.com/nt11/moving/in-sight-documentary2/

I watched the preview and may download the whole documentary  for my essay if it proves relevant, guidance needed from my tutor.

 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/photoblog/2009/08/twirlrun_on_the_street.html

I bought a book in the summer  which will help me with my essay :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Street-Photography-Now-black---white/dp/0500289077/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1317033955&sr=8-3

Nick Turpin says of this book

I find it significant of some slight change in attitude that this year a large publisher, Thames and Hudson will release their survey of the contemporary scene, Street Photography Now and my own small publishing company will release '10' containing 200 mostly un-themed images from the in-public group. Neither of us would invest in these publications unless we thought their was now an audience for this work that is largely about nothing and, of course, about everything.

Benifits of Slr Video

I read with interest an article regarding the use of the SLR video function and the writer stated that he felt the uses are limited and the idea was a passing fad.

http://www.photozz.com/fizz/19966598.aspx


I recently took some photos of an elderly gentleman who is dying of cancer.

The client wanted to record some images before he became to unwell. I filled the brief with ease and then an opportunity arose to shoot some discreet HD video, I asked a few gently probing questions . My intention being to cover his highs and lows in life. At the time I had no idea if the family would be able to use the footage or would even want the footage. But I felt it was an opportunity that could not be passed up. My camera was on a tripod and recorded silently while I asked about the subjects life.


I showed the family the images and asked them if they would be interested in some video footage I had shot explaining that I had taken it discreetly and gently led the questioning. The family stated they were delighted as they had nothing like that. What I had done on the spur of the moment had become a precious record of events that the family could not have dreamed of capturing.


With this in mind I feel the advantages of video capabilities is something that I could now not do with out, I will always consider using both Video and stills in future.



There are of course limitations to hand held SLR video, but I have made several high quality films which have been of excellent quality, the one below was all filmed on a hand held digital compact camera :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tei488YgBZs

While the qaulity is not as high as an SLR, it shows that even a small compact camera can produce great results

I feel this extract article below also argues the point very well by stating

Video capability in DSLRs represents nothing short of a revolution. A new generation of photographers will embrace what they have to offer and use them to create new forms of art and commerce. In a few years we'll likely think that a still camera that can't also shoot video, or a video camera that can't also shoot stills is strangely underfeatured.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/camcorders/cam-cam.shtml

Further interesting reading can be found below :

http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/technical-report/1650999/the-ultimate-guide-hd-dslr-camera-accessories

copyright

Copyright

I have also chosen to look at another area of interest that is copyright, I found an interesting copyright article online regarding a photographer named Richard Prince. He was taken to court regarding copyright infringement in 2008 :

The celebrated American artist Richard Prince has been ordered to destroy works worth tens of millions of dollars after a court ruled that the paintings, which reworked a series of photographs by the French photographer Patrick Cariou, had breached copyright.

A New York federal court has ruled that Prince and his gallery infringed Cariou's copyright when he produced a series of works in a 2008 show using 35 pictures from the book Yes, Rasta, published by Cariou in 2000, "in their entirety, or nearly so".

Source:  http://m.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/23/richard-prince-artwork-copyright-breach?cat=world&type=article

Richard Prince has adapted the work of Photogragher Cariou by adding, in one instance, an electric guitar and some splodges for eyes.

Princes lawyers claimed "fair use" of the images. But as far as I can tell they are clearly plagiarised. The adaptations are at best minimal, they offer no new perspective. I fell that Cariou has every right to pursue Prince in court.

Source : http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Patrick-Cariou-wins-copyright-case-against-Richard-Prince-and-Gagosian/23387

Looking at the images above  it is clear that they closely resemble the original images taken by photographer, Cariou. Furthermore there has been little signifigant change to the images. If I was in Cariou’s position I too would be angry that my copyright was being infringed.

The Technique Behind Martin Schoeller’s Photography

I came across a very interesting and amazing photographer while planning research for my next studio brief. 

Jack Nicholson

Barak Obahma

Christopher Walken 

http://martinschoeller.com/

Schoeller grew up in Germany and worked as an assistant to Annie Leibovitz another of my favourite photgraphers. He then became a freelance photographer producing street portraits of people he met. 

He uses the same photography lighting techniques for most of his studio portraits, he also seems to use a close up style portrait technique similar to one that I favour. As well as a medium format camera. 

I love his style and technique, he has undoubtedly stamped his own style on each portrait. In fact more so than many other portrait photographers manage to do.

His use of strip lights creates a really interesting lighting technique and the catch lights in the eyes become very unusual, they draw you to the centre of the image. The details in each portrait are phenomenal, this is achieved using medium format cameras. Another technique that I would like to study further.

You can find more detail on his very interesting lighting techniques here :

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/2009/09/the-technique-behind-martin-schoellers-photography/

Also a rather interesting video of several of his videos here :

http://www.mediastorm.com/publication/close-up

Exhibitions

I went to the Faye Godwin Exhibition recently : Land revisted. 

http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/AboutUs/PressOffice/2010/August/LandRevisited.aspx

It was very inspiring. Although I am not a natural landscape photographer I love landscape photography. It was an amazing exhibition and really useful to see, particularly in terms of how the photography was displayed. 

In fact I enjoyed it so much that I went twice. Once on my own and once with a friend. 

There is a new exhibition on which I would love to go and see, sadly it's in Durham. Which is a bit of a trek. So wether I get there will be debatable.  

The exhibition is by a photographer I really respect Chris Steele Perkins, a Magnum photographer - 

A summary of Chris Steele Perkins quoted from the following website : 




The award-winning Magnum Agency photographer, Chris Steele-Perkins came to England in 1949 when he was two, the son of a Burmese mother and English father. Remarkably calm and unprejudiced, he was uniquely qualified to chronicle England's evolution into an ethnically diverse society. Not that his aim in his England, My England anthology was to produce a sociological survey; instead, his collection is a kind of antidote to the rose-tinted myths peddled by the tourism industry. You won't find pomp and circumstance here, no Changing of the Guard, or a Henley Regatta. You will find people that you'd cross the street to avoid though.
In concentrating upon "everydayness and how that can be special" he unflinchingly records the absurdities, the pleasures and the tragedies of English life, invariably with wit and humour.
A University Gallery touring exhibition.

Ten images to reflect upon

Select Ten images

My tutor asked us to pick ten images so that we might group them or categorise them in class.

I never thought that what should be a relatively simple task turned out to be so tricky.

I'm not sure why, maybe it was because I was trying to pick quite different images as requested.

Or maybe it was because I was trying to pick images that meant something to me. Either way I spent a long time mulling over which images to include.

I also decided to include 1 of my own images. Something that the 1 or 2 other students did also. We were then asked in class to separate the images into 4 different groups

• Frame

• The thing itself

• Viewpoint

• 

This proved a tricky task as well, as it quickly became clear that several images worked on many levels. I guess that was the purpose of the task though. To show that some images worked on one level, while certain images worked on many levels. Which  in turn made them more successful.

As usual one of the students decided to challenge theses ideas (frustrating as usual) rather than listen. Luckily for me my dealings with this person are fairly minimal now.  

It was a very interesting lesson and it will certainly make me consider how I view or read my own photography & that of others. 

It is clear that the skill of reading photography is an important one which needs developing further. Deconstruction of images is something that all photographers need to develop in my opinion.

Here are the images that I picked : 

Chris Killip's "Youth on wall, Jarrow, Tyneside 1976

Malcom X by Avedon

Untitled by Me

Hlup by Yahor shumski

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shumski/5197863289/in/faves-lazarous_666/

John and Yoko by Annie Lebovitz

Beneath the roses by Grgory Crewdson

Crowd by Alex Prager 

http://www.cityist.com/blog/moma-new-photography/

Title unknown by Marina Abramovic ? 

Kids on Bradford estate by Don Mc Cullin

Night photography

As I have an interest in night photography I thought I better do some further research.  I was  :

http://smashinghub.com/amazing-photography-stars-shots-at-night-by-ben-canales-25-pics.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Smashinghub+%28SmashingHub%29

I was very impressed by the above photographers photos also found here :

http://www.theStarTrail.com/

I am familiar with most of the settings that this chap suggested, but it is nice to get a little extra help.

Essentially the better the camera, the better the result. It is possible to get good results with a 50 D, but obviously the result is less impressive compared to a 5D for example.

Set the ISO as high as possible,  and use this equation :

The real solution to this is to purchase a 35mm prime lens of course.

Street photographer discovered

This is one of those amazing discovery stories that you never see. A Chicago nanny had her photos purchased in a garage sale turned out she was into street photography. In a big, big way. She had literally thousands upon thousands of negatives.

She may even be a competitor for the likes of Frank and the other classic street photographers of his time.
Amazing to think that it may have never been discovered, it is only because of one mans dedication that her work is now coming to light and being exhibited.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWEDOnBfDUI